Always Been You!
by ChasityAnyae
Summary: Sam Puckett has a struggling business and if she doesn't make something happen to revive her business, in 6 months she will lose everything. but what happens when her partner hires someone from her past? Seddie! OOC, AU
1. Getting By

_Background: Sam Puckett has a struggling business and if she doesn't make something happen to revive her business, in 6 months she will lose everything. but what happens when her partner hires someone from her past? Seddie! OOC, AU_

**Chapter 1**

Sam wondered how today would be different from the last 9 months. To her, nothing could get any worse than losing her business,

J&S Books, She and her partner carly shay worked so hard to build these last 5 years. They needed a plan to help revive their

business, without it in 6 months they would everything. Thinking that life was already hard without her parents, she felt life wouldn't

allow her to be happy. Why does everything have to happen now that she finally can move on from everything that's happened in

the past two years? Two years ago her mom was killed in a car crash, leaving her alone since her moms' family was never that

close. She has best friends. Or she thought she had 1. But not wanting to go there since it held to many memories. She decides that

laying in bed feeling sorry for herself is not what she wants to do, so she decides to get up and get ready for work.

Going into the bathroom, she turns the shower on and starts reminiscing on her childhood and all the love she felt growing up. Her

mom was the best. Always pushing her to be the best and to never give up. Making her the person she is today. She wishes she

could let them know just what they meant to her. She wonders if she will ever get to have any children of her own. She hasn't been

on a date in 8 months. Tired of casually dating men, who are only after one thing. She wants something with substance something

that will last. Not just a fling that will last for a month or two. She wanted someone with goals, has an education, shares the same

values in life that she does, and who also wanted a family like her. Not wanting an immature man since they were all jerks, she's lost

count of how many disastrous dates she's been on.

Turning the water off in the shower, she steps out and wraps a towel around her. She hears her cell phone ringing. Running to

answer it, she trips over the clothes she had on yesterday thrown all over the floor. After looking at her caller ID, she sees that it's

carly, her best friend, answering she says.

"Hey carly, What's up?"

Carly replies and says "sam, where are you? You were supposed to open the store this morning. I got a call from cindy saying you

never showed up and that you were supposed to meet her here at 8, it's now 9:30. You're never late what's going on?"

"Carly calm down I just over slept it's not a big deal. I will be there shortly; I just got out the shower."

"Sam are you sure you're okay, you've been acting different lately and I'm not the only one who has noticed it."

Sam just shakes her head and replies "I'm okay, I don't understand what you're saying I haven't been acting different lately, I have

just been trying to figure out a way out of this slump we're in. but I should be there in a half hour so I will see you then okay?" "Okay

see you then" carly says and hangs up.

Getting up and going into her closet to choose her outfit for the day. Twenty minutes later she's on her way out the door. Seeing her

neighbor Mrs. Grant, who lives across street she waves "Good Morning Mrs. Grant." She says even though she would rather not be

polite. Its way to early in the morning and she has not had her bacon or coffee yet. "Good Morning Sam, It's a nice day out. When

are you going to get yourself a husband?" "Mrs. Grant you ask me this everyday and my response will always be the same,

whenever I find someone who has what I am looking for, See you later." Getting into her car she shakes her head wondering when

Mrs. Grant will ever stop asking her that. _Maybe when you find a man she will until then, she will be there to remind you of the life _

_you don't have. _She quickly put that thought aside, she didn't need any man distracting her while she was trying to save her store.

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><p><em><strong>Authors Note: This Is My First FanFic &amp; I'm Nervouse As To What Yu May Think. This Story Is An Au Story, This Idea Has Been in my head for months now. I wrote this months ago but cant seem to get this story out of my head. so instead of ignoring this feeling i dediced to publish and see if yu think i should continue... REVIEWS are GREATLY APPRECIATED!<strong>_


	2. Making Tough Decisions

**Chapter 2: Making Tough Decisions**

**Sam POV**

Finally arriving at S&P Books, she immediately sees that there are only 4 customers in the store. Looking at her watch she sees that it is only 10:30. Being a hour late isn't that especially when the lunch crowd hasn't come in yet so she relaxes just a little. On her way to the back of the store she passes the college student they just hired 3 months ago. "Good morning Kai, sorry I'm late. I had a long night. But how are you today?" "I'm doing great Ms. Sam just trying to keep up with studying and what better place to study then a bookstore." Sam loved Kai's enthusiasm and her love for books that's why she was hired. Even before offering her the position, she used to sit in the store for hours reading, doing homework and would help customers out from time to time. She became a regular so much that people automatically thought she worked here. So her getting a job here was inevitable.

"Kai I keep telling you to stop calling me Ms. It makes me feel old."

"Sorry Sam, It just comes naturally"

"So, is Carly in the back?"

"Yeah she is she's been waiting for you."

Uh Oh! Sam knew what that meant. Ever since the store has been in jeopardy carly hasn't been the easiest person to get along with. Usually with her always being the positive one but now she is so stressed, it makes her bitchy. "Thanks Kai." Sam said turning towards the office that she shares with carly.

Going into the back of the store, she is still amazed at the size they were able to get for the whole place. They were able to get a nice sized store which isn't too big nor is it to small but it's just big enough to accommodate book signings and events that the store holds. Now only if they could keep S&P open. In the back they were able to fit 2 desks, a mini refrigerator, a microwave, while still having enough room for storage. Opening the door to the back room, she sees that carly is on the phone. So she goes to her desk and gets settled to have what carly calls her _Talk_. carly has been her best friend since the first day of college, they shared the same dream and became. While carly is still on the phone she looks over at her wondering why she was still single. She is a very beautiful woman and any man would be lucky to have her. She has her own business, her own place. Maybe she was holding out for someone special, whoever it was sam thought she deserved happiness. Hanging up the phone carly turned and stared at sam with a seething look, and she knew this _Talk_ would not be nice. After staring at her for what seemed like 5 minutes.

Carly finally said "so are you going to tell me why you were late this morning?"

"Carls it's not that big of a deal, I just overslept."

"you are a workaholic, you don't oversleep especially with the store being in jeopardy. So tell me what's really going on." Said carly

Sam couldn't tell her how she really felt. She couldn't tell her she felt like a failure and they hadn't even lost their store yet. She couldn't say that she dreaded coming in the store every day. And she couldn't say that she just wanted to give up sometimes.

So instead she said "I was up all night trying to come up with solutions to save the store."

"Did you come up with any ideas?"

"No, none that really helps. Mostly I thought of reducing our prices, but we already did that as low as we can, while still being able to pay the bills. But that still hasn't changed a thing, we need to make a major profit in the next 3 months or we lose everything."

"I have a couple ideas to save the store, but it will cost us."

"Cost us? Cost us how?" I am really not trying to spend money on someone who really isn't going to help. They are just probably going to consult us and then charge us way too much just for their advice.

"I was on the internet, and I was searching for people who specialize in helping to rebuild struggling businesses. I found one that I think we should consider hiring. Now I know that you don't agree with me on this, but I really think this is the direction we need to go in."

"We can't afford to be paying anyone. I don't know about this, we would be depending on someone else's ideas to save our store. When this person doesn't know anything about us or what this store means to the community." She didn't want someone telling her what was best for their store, when that person wasn't even there from the beginning.

Carly thinks she's just being unreasonable so she said "Sam let's think about everything, we need something to change. If not we lose our lives, and we lose our pride. I don't know about you but I think this is the only option we have left. So why don't you just think about it, and let me know your decision. But in two days with or without your decision I will be making this call to hire someone, because I refuse to lose this store. Even if have to spend my savings to pay someone I will, because I'm not giving up without a fight."

With that being said carly got up and walked out of their office leaving Sam to think about a lot. Was she being unreasonable?

Was she holding back because she was too afraid to have someone else save their store when she felt it was her responsibility?

She didn't want to let her pride get in the way of something that was bigger than how her ego would feel.

Her pride would be forever damaged if she didn't take a chance on someone. She needed to realize this just wasn't about how she felt, because she has a partner in this same situation. So deciding to swallow her pride and hire someone, even if that means spending more money that they really didn't have.


	3. Always On The Go

**Chapter 3 Always On The Go**

_**-Freddie POV-**_

So here I am at the airport once again. I think this place has become my home since I don't live anywhere permanently. I'm always traveling the world helping people with their struggling businesses. Sitting down waiting for his flight to Houston, he looks around at his surroundings and sees there are some women making suggestive smiles at him. But what they don't know is that he is can't offer them any type of relationship right now, just a one night stand.

For him relationships and traveling didn't mix for three reasons:

1. He is not in a position to become emotionally attached to anyone.

2. He CAN NOT get over his past.

3. He hasn't found that one woman who can make his heart skip a beat just at the thought of her.

Snapping him from his thoughts is the vibration from his cell phone. Reaching into his pocket, he looks at the screen and sees it's Gibby Gibson, his friend, partner, and lawyer. After pushing the talk button, he lifts the phone up to his ear and says

"Hey Gib, What's Up?"

"Hey Freddie, Nothing much, Where You at now?"

"I'm at the Boston airport, on my way to Houston"

"How long do you think you'll be needed there, there may be another job in Seattle that will pay more money, but it's a longer stay."

"How long would I have to stay?" Freddie knew that gibby let him know this information ahead of time, because he doesn't like being in a city for more than a month. He does this so he doesn't get attached to anything or anyone, and he hasn't found a place to call home yet.

Gibby replies "three to four months at the most, but it will definitely be worth it, this place is in danger of closing in less than 6 months if they don't turn a profit in 3months."

"I don't know man, I would have to think about it. How soon do you need an answer?"

"I need to know by the end of this week, I just took this client on, so she can protect her company from filing for bankruptcy and I told her all about what you do, and told her how many businesses you've saved. She said she would discuss it with her partner and get back to me by Wednesday, I'm asking you because I need to let her know how soon you can get there, and she said even without her partners consent she would hire us, because they really need it."

"Ok I will call you when I make a decision."

"Ok, but Freddie you really need to consider this, you know I'm from Seattle and that's another reason why I believe you can help with this, I don't want no business from my hometown to fail, just like you wouldn't want to fail, so find something in your heart to consider this job. And did you think about what we talked about before?"

Freddie sighed into the phone, although gibby was his friend he couldn't help but think that he was very annoying. He knew exactly what he was asking him, and the answer is still the same. NO! No matter what, that was his past and thinking about it brought back too many memories that were good and bad. Shaking these thought form his head he said to gibby "yeah, I thought about it, but the answer is still no, so just drop the subject please!"

"Ok man, I'll drop it for now, but remember you can't run from the past forever, call me when you land in Houston." And with that gibby hung up the phone.

Putting the phone back into his pocket, Freddie juts shook his head and sighed. Gibby just won't let everything go. Hearing his flight being called to board, he got up grabbed his things and headed on the plane, pushing back those thoughts that he hates having.

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><p><strong><em>-Authors Note-<em>**

**_I Know Its Been A While Since I've Updated. But My Internet Hasn't Been Working For Almost 3 Weeks. It Works For Everyone Else In The House But Me, It Doesnt Like ME AT ALL! I Couldn't Even Get My Internet To Work So I Could Check My Email. But this Chapter Has Been Typed Up For Two Weeks Now, & I Am Currently Working On Chapter 4, I Haven't Really Had Time Because I've Been Working Crazy Hours These Past Weeks. But Now Since My Internet Likes Me again, I Will Update Weekly. HOPEFULLY. Lol. & Thanks To Everyone Who Put My Story On Alert & Reviewed.!_**

**_& I know it may seem like freddie is hiding something, but its the background to this story, so be patient & everything will be revealed soon._**

**_& To The Anonymous review: This Story Is A.U. Which is alternate Unvierse. so in different circumstances her mom is the total opposite from the show. & The Same With freddie's Life. As The story progresses, you will understand everything better._**

**_Read & Reaview Is Greatly Appreciated, Thanks.!_**


	4. NOT AN UPDATE!

_**Authors note This Isn't an Update!**_

_**I Know I haven't updated in A While But there's many reasons why I haven't. 1 I Work in retail so holiday season came up so I all I did was work & sleep. 2 I'm so impossibly stuck on chapter 4 it's not even funny. So I decided that chapter 4 is going to be mostly just a filler chapter. & 3 I TURNED 21 IN NOVEMBER SO THAT'S ALSO WHY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO UPDATE! I was having the time of my life, but I was always on the site reading. I also want to thank everyone that reviewed and put this story on their alerts! And thanks for being patient. So look for an update soon, but don't expect me to update regularly. Chapter 5 is already planned out!**_


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